After John McCain admitted on the campaign trail that Cindy had to help him out with his emails, once might assume that he deserved to take a break from technology. But it seems the Senator has now jumped on the twittering bandwagon with the rest of the Beltway.
You can follow him here. And the old warrior's returned to a favourite theme. McCain is using the service to list the most outrageous pork-barrel projects. As a result, the no-longer-entirely-accurate tweet: Meeting with PM Tony Blair
barely figures in between such gems as: $1,427,250 for genetic improvements of switchgrass - I thought switchgrass genes were pretty good already, guess I was wrong.
and $900,000 for fish management - how does one manage a fish...
All you need to know about the money wasted in Washington. And then some.
He hasn't lost yet, but the post campaign assessment is beginning. Already pundits are asking the question why might did McCain lose?
Here's what's on offer just today:
Karl Rove suggests (a popular one this) that the campaign should have started beating up on Obama much earlier: Mr. Obama's troublesome friendships with Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and (especially) Rev. Jeremiah Wright are important. But only 12 days remain. These relationships should have been highlighted by the McCain campaign in the spring and summer.
Froma Harrop argues that the Sarah Palin pick broke the heart of centrists: Once on her own, she quickly displayed a shocking ignorance of world affairs and a general inability to talk coherently on policy matters. Her habit of dividing America - even individual states - into good and not-as-good sectors comes off as downright weird.
Meanwhile Joe Klein argues that Obama is winning rather than McCain losing: Barack Obama has prospered in this presidential campaign because of the steadiness of his temperament and the judicious quality of his decision-making.
My own view, for what its worth, is that both Harrop and Klein have it a little bit right. McCain needed to keep his reputation with independents and didn't (with Sarah Palin being one big reason for that). And he needed Obama to screw up. And Obama didn't.
But this is only a little bit right. Because it is too small an explanation.
The American electorate has changed. And the Republicans have not changed with them. They need to appeal to liberal, urban, middle class America and to new immigrant groups.
At the moment they are drifting away from voters. And a million miles away from realising it.
They need a leader who can help them make that change. McCain proved not to be that leader.
His guest David Gergen talks about the high road, the low road and why the stock market is much more important than going negative:
While everyone waits to see whether McCain decides to turn up in Mississippi tonight, Andy Borowitz offers up his own indomitable take on the situation: "As of today, I am officially bailing out of the debate," Sen. McCain told reporters in Washington today. "And I invite Sen. Obama to join me in this bailout effort."
Sen. McCain said he would be putting together what he called "a comprehensive debate bailout package," which could include bailing out of the other two scheduled debates as well.
Take a look at the graph of the RealClearPolitics polling average in the US Presidential Election before you carry on reading this post.
Notice something?
Along the bottom, in grey, the graph shows that Obama has led for almost the entire period and the spikes of McCain lead are very short lived.
I am sure the picture would be the same if the graph stretched further back.
From this a number of points are clear. First, this election is not the nail biting close contest that is being portrayed. Generally, Obama is ahead. It may be fairly narow but his lead is clear and pretty consistent.
All other things being equal Obama is going to win. And this is the most likely outcome.
McCain will find it hard to reverse this overall position. So what can he do?
Provide shocks.
He is just about capable of turning the race for brief periods. His one chance of winning is that one of his small short-lived spikes coincides with election day.
His strategy therefore will not be the long grind of building a message and winning trust. It will be to pull rabbits out of hats. He has to keep turning the race to keep himself in it.
And then hope he has kept one bit of reckless surprise back big enough to win, to be timed right for the end of the race.
His actions yesterday fit entirely with that.
I have to say, though, that looking at the long term polling trend, you have to conclude that McCain is a long shot.
Tina Fey's already nailed her impression of Sarah Palin. Now the folks at SNL take a shot at John McCain.
So John McCain is ahead. How did that happen?
The conventional wisdom says it's simple - Palin. But I actually think it is a little more complicated than that.
There were two reasons to select Palin (if you accept the idea that it was more than just a blind reckless gamble). The first is that she sewed up the base allowing McCain to run as an independent. The second is that she is mischaracterised as a traditional conservative and is properly seen as a public service McCainiac.
Either of these or both may be true.
Whatever the case may be, the change in McCain's campaign since he announced her arrival is striking.
Before last week he appeared stuck in a rut. He was running a dreary and conventional Experience v Obama the celebrity. I was sure this would not work.
Now he has changed tack. Take a look at this remarkable, perhaps game changing new campaign ad:
So the Republican candidate advertises that he and his running mate have taken on Big Pharma, Big Oil and, er, the Republican Party. This was obviously the right way to go. But it needed two things - guts and the ability to square the party. Suddenly the McCain campaign has got both.
It's not just the ad.
Jay Cost notes that McCain's speech was unconventional too. While most commentators noted that it was flat, Cost argues both that it had its moments and that its message was right.
I still think Obama is slightly the more likely to win, but with this new campaign message McCain now has a shot.
John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate shows that he regards his age as an issue but not a problem. And it show that he is a risk taker. But is that it?
David Brooks provides a brilliantly insightful analysis in the New York Times today that suggests that there is much more to it.
David argues that Palin is not a tactical pick. She is an ideological one.
He starts with a description of McCain: The main axis in McCain’s worldview is not left-right. It’s public service versus narrow self-interest.
Throughout his career, he has been drawn to those crusades that enabled him to launch frontal attacks on the concentrated powers of selfishness — whether it was the big money donors who exploited the loose campaign finance system, the earmark specialists in Congress like Alaska’s Don Young and Ted Stevens, the corrupt Pentagon contractors or Jack Abramoff.
Then he has this to say about Palin: When McCain met Sarah Palin last February, he was meeting the rarest of creatures, an American politician who sees the world as he does. Like McCain, Palin does not seem to have an explicit governing philosophy.
Her background is socially conservative, but she has not pushed that as governor of Alaska. She seems to find it easier to work with liberal Democrats than the mandarins in her own party.
Instead, she seems to get up in the morning to root out corruption.
McCain was meeting a woman who risked her career taking on the corrupt Republican establishment in her own state, who twice defeated the oil companies, who made mortal enemies of the two people McCain has always held up as the carriers of the pork-barrel disease: Young and Stevens.
The argument, then, is that Palin allows McCain to run as he has always wanted - as a Teddy Roosevelt public spirited, duty first candidate.
Although, of course, in order to do that the Republicans will have to surf the shockwaves first.
The pastor who officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding has taken against John McCain, after McCain volunteered his wife Cindy last week for a topless beauty contest. Although McCain aides have emphasised that they are sure the nominee was joking, Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell has thrown his weight behind Obama, saying: "Well, I don't know a lot about John McCain's family history, I do know, however, that as recently as last week I think it was, the senator made a comment in South Dakota regarding his wife entering some Buffalo Chips contest which is this topless deal and if she were to enter she would probably win it and my personal opinion and based on my understanding of the Christian faith, that's not, not, N-O-T, not the type of expression that a presidential candidate, or anyone for that matter who is a follower of the Christian faith, ought to make...I don't know if that is a perfect case in point, but it surely does help to juxtapose the DNA of Senator Obama, if you would, versus the DNA of Senator McCain."
Caldwell must be hoping that Obama sticks to the naked truth and doesn't make any similar, ahem, boobs.
What does Cindy McCain think of biker chick chic? She may have to find out. John McCain made an appearance at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally yesterday and showed a taste for life on the open road.
As the warm-up number for Kid Rock, McCain proved his credentials to a revving of engines. The Caucus reports on the event: Mr. McCain noted that Mr. Obama had drawn tens of thousands to a speech in Berlin last month.
“I’ll take the roar of 150 Harleys any day. Any day,” he said, to more roars.
“This is my first time here,” he continued, “but I recognize that sound. It’s the sound of freedom.”
His words won over the bikers. But can he claw his way to Leader of the Pack?
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